Both Mike Males, the writer of "Stop Blaming Kids and TV," and Susan R. Lamson, writer of "TV Violence: Does It Cause Real-Life Mayhem?" have different views on the controversial issue of television causing violence. Males believe that television should not be blamed for the violence in society (mainly among children) and Lamson believes that television does cause "real-life mayhem." Males and Lamson both have strong arguments and express their position very well.
             In "Stop Blaming Kids and TV," Mike Males discusses his point that violence in society should not be blamed on the children that are watching violence in the media. He talks about the fact that there is more crime and violence going on in real life and yet we continue to blame the media for the violence in society. The crime statistics he generates prove that the media is not the only place people witness violence and crime. He also discusses the fact that these programs are viewed nationwide, and yet the programs do not have the same effect on everyone. He gives an example of two neighboring cities that have different statistics in crime rates, and yet they both get the same media and news broadcasted to them. He also talks about the drastically different levels of violence in society in other countries, even though other countries watch the same programs as Americans do. He states that people in Europe and Japan, even though they are all watching similar shows, have much lower crime rates than the people in America. He also discusses the topic of studies about the characteristics of adolescents. He shows how the behavioral problems of the teens are blamed on the media instead of the adults that surround them. Males give the example that the children that are brought up in a "smoking environment" are three times more likely to pick up smoking. This example shows that the media is not the only thing that could be held accountable for the bad behavior of the kids. The actio...